


To the beat of your... hammer?

by Stilienski



Series: Sterek ficlets [22]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Blacksmith Derek, Blacksmithing, M/M, Meet-Cute, Musician Stiles, Sterek Week 2017, sterekmeetcute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 06:25:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12525044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stilienski/pseuds/Stilienski
Summary: Stiles has some serious writer's block, he just can't write a decent song. But his banging neighbor seems to help.





	To the beat of your... hammer?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JungleJelly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JungleJelly/gifts).



> Thanks, JungleJelly for forcing me to finish this and helping me keep up with sterek week.

Stiles ripped his headphones off and let his head fall on the keyboard. It was awful. He’d been holed up in his house for two weeks straight now, didn’t even leave to get groceries, he got everything delivered to his doorstep. It’s not even like he chose for this. Stiles  _ liked _ going out. He liked meeting Scott for coffee, he liked going to the movies, he liked going to concerts and clubs and do fun stuff. He also really liked getting  _ air _ . But his deadline was coming up and he hadn’t managed to make anything yet in the past eight months. 

So he’d basically locked himself inside, telling himself he could only leave the house if he’d finished a song. Which was today, finally, after two weeks of writing and singing and playing and deleting and writing and singing and deleting and writing and deleting, he’d finally managed to finish something. Only to listen to it and find out it was utter horse crap. It was ridiculous. 

It’s not like he was a star or a genius or anything, but he was good. He’d been making a living from his music for almost six years now. This had never happened to him before, and it was unacceptable, is what it was! Honestly, at this point he’d settle for writing a jingle as long as it didn’t suck. But it didn’t seem very likely to happen.

The worst thing about this song he cooked up was probably that the lyrics weren’t even that bad? And the melody wasn’t good, but it had potential… it’s just that it was all… off somehow. Stiles didn’t know how to fix it. 

He groaned, lifting his head from where it had smashed the keyboard. Stiles was lost, he just had no clue where to go from here. He was going stir crazy, so he should probably shower and at least allow himself a short walk before locking himself up for another two week period. If he was going to return to the world of the living though, he should probably take a shower first. 

But just when he was about to get up from his swivel chair, there was a loud bang. He’d been so lost in his own head and in his own noise that the first outside noise surprised him so much he fell off his chair. 

“What in the bloody hell?” The banging kept on, it was a very sharp sound, but not too loud. It was quiet enough that he’d managed to tune it out with his headphones for god knows how long. But it was a very particular sound that he hadn’t heard before. And to be honest, if this kept on going, it could get very annoying very quickly.

Yes, the banging did continue. Stiles thought he should probably be pissed off about this. The fact that his shower was being so rudely disturbed by that horrid noise should have had him outside and knocking on his neighbor’s door immediately. But for some reason, he found himself kind of… enjoying it? There was a soothing rhythm to it. A fairly fast-paced beat, with an interesting higher-tone backbeat. 

Subconsciously, Stiles had started tapping his foot along with it, splashing in the water. Before long, he was humming his melody as well, just adapted a little bit to suit the tone of the clangs coming from the other side of his wall. Just as he’d gotten through the chorus he heard his mom’s voice in the back of his head, chiding  _ “don’t waste your talent on the shampoo bottles!” _

He dripped all over the hardwood floors on his way to the piano, only having taken the time to wrap a towel around his waist to protect the leather seat. His hair was still dripping when he started playing, fingers stumbling over the keys at first before they found their way, guided by the beat from outside. 

Every five minutes or so, the noise paused, and Stiles took the time to adjust his notes, dry his hair, put some sweatpants on, grab a glass of water… but as soon as the rhythm picked up again, his fingers and lips moved along, getting more comfortable in their movements and patterns every time. 

It must have been quite late already when he decided it was time to record what he had now. But the noise didn’t come again, no matter how long he waited. “No, no, no… don’t do this to me! Not now! Come on!” For the first time in eight months he was actually onto something and then his source of inspiration disappeared just when he needed it most. 

He rushed outside, sheet music in hand, and basically sprinted into the direction the noise had come from, ringing the doorbell at the first house on his way. “Come on! Open the freaking door!” He rang a couple times in quick succession, but there didn’t seem to be any movement inside. And it couldn’t have come from the next house over, the houses were already pretty far apart in this neighborhood, which is why Stiles moved here in the first place. It made it a lot harder to annoy people with his music. 

Stiles wasn’t giving up on finding this beat though, so he went down the porch steps and rounded the house to check out the back. Maybe they’d been working outside…. He was so desperate to write this song that he only remembered this was the house of Miss Maverick, who hated his guts. It was too late to back out now though, he was already standing in her backyard. Which had changed a lot since the last time he saw it… the shed had had an impressive update. 

And Miss Maverick had been updated too… instead of an old grumpy lady, it was a very handsome, very dirty, very attractive male specimen that appeared in the doorway of the updated shed. “Can I help you?” Handsome asked, wiping his hands on a filthy rag, his eyes giving Stiles an appreciative once-over. 

“Er… yes? I’m… I’m Stiles, I live next door.” 

“Oh, yeah, sorry about the noise. I tried to come by and warn you about it last weekend but I guess you weren’t home?” Stiles couldn’t do anything but keep his jaw from hitting the floor as Handsome approached him. “I’m Derek, by the way. I’d shake your hand, but…” Derek awkwardly waved a black-stained hand in the air. 

“That’s fine. Just… what was that noise?” Stiles asked curiously, trying to keep his wits about him, looking over Derek’s shoulder to the building behind him. 

“I was working. I’m a blacksmith, so… I’m sorry if it was disturbing you, I should get some better noise-cancelling insulation for the workshop next week.” A blacksmith… Stiles tried to combine the image of the man standing in front of him in a filthy wife-beater and black workshop pants with a glowing hot sword and a hammer. It was too much. Stiles probably spent too much time ogling Derek without saying anything, because Derek spoke up once more. “So… was there anything else? Or just a well-founded noise complaint?” 

“No! No, no, I’m not here to complain. I was just wondering if there was any way you could go back to the banging for like 5 mins? 10 mins tops?” 

“You want me to go back to the banging?”  _ Oh you bet your fine ass I want you to do some more banging. _

“Yeah, I kind of wrote a song to the beat of it. And dude, I haven’t been able to write anything for months now, I need this song. Please, please, please go back to the banging? The hammering!” oh god, everything sounded like a euphemism. “The blacksmithery! Please? Just long enough for me to record one take? I’ll bring you cupcakes tomorrow!” Stiles tried to sweeten the pot. 

“You wrote a song? Are you serious?”

“Yes!” He waved around his sheets as if it was some sort of evidence. 

“I’d need to heat something up in my forge again, it might take a while…” Derek still looked quite skeptical of Stiles’ story. 

“Okay! That’s fine, I have all day. Please take your time!” Stiles was already backing away, half running to his house again to set everything up for the recording. “Thank you so much! I owe you one!” 

He was almost at the front of the house again when Derek called back. “Dinner! You owe me dinner! Take me out someplace nice and we’ll call it even.” 

That made Stiles stop in his tracks. 

“O-Okay?” Surely Derek couldn’t mea-

“Good. It’s a date.” Apparently he did… Stiles saved his happy dance for the confines of his own home. “And I want to hear that song you wrote!” 

“Sure! Thanks again, man, I can’t wait for your banging!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Hope you enjoyed.  
> Leave some kudos/comments if you did, or hit me up on [Tumblr](http://bilienski.tumblr.com/)


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